“We’re disappointed, but even in Whitney’s death, no one is exempt from the harsh realities of the world,” Whitney’s sister-in-law Pat Houston told reporters at a press conference for the upcoming documentary Whitney, which she executive produced, at the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills on Monday, June 25. “It’s not the first time the picture has been shown. It’s insane.”

Director Kevin Macdonald echoed, “To me, I thought it was very insensitive. And then I wonder, ‘OK, did that have anything [to do with] the film coming out?’ You know, all of this is happening at the same time. … The other side of it is, though, even in its negativity … people are so obsessed and affected by that image. [It] is a huge power for people, and they’re using it very much for a shock value, superficial shock value, but it does speak to the way in which Whitney and her death are so much a part of popular culture.”

Pusha T, 41, revealed in May that West, also 41, paid $85,000 to obtain the image, which originally appeared on a cover of the National Enquirer in 2006. It shows drugs and paraphernalia on the counter in Whitney’s bathroom and was secretly photographed by Tina Brown, the sister of the music legend’s ex-husband, Bobby Brown.

“[West] changed my artwork last night at 1 a.m.,” Pusha T said on Power 105.1 FM’s The Angie Martinez Show on May 24. “He wasn’t feeling it. The [original] artwork … was pictures that we all agreed on.”

Bobby, 49, previously spoke out against West, who produced Daytona. “Why would he post that on his album cover? That’s really disgusting that he would do that. That’s in really bad taste,” the former New Edition singer said in May. “Something should happen to Kanye … He needs somebody to slap him up or something. And I’m just the person to do it.”